The dark-haired, 14-year-old was sitting at the kitchen table Feb. 13, excited about a baby lamb she was going to purchase for her California high school's Future Farmers of America project. She spoke with a friend on the phone and prepared to head to school.

She never made it.

More than a week later, dozens of community members have continued their search of the Escondido, Calif., area, and the teen's family has hired a private investigator to help with the search, frustrated, they say, that police treated Amber as a runaway -- which officials deny.

"Unfortunately, in my mind, I'm about 98 percent positive she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got abducted by a stranger," her father, Maurice "Moe" DuBois, told ABCNews.com.